Chapter 80 - Appraise Separately
Chapter 80: Appraise Separately
Instead of bringing Zheng Ziwen, Ni Yinghong, and Ou Yangming to the town, Lin Yichen brought them to a village.
Since they traveled in a carriage, other than Lin Yichen, nobody knew where they were. Even Ou Yangming, who was locally born and raised, could not identify the location right away.
“Masters, this is just a temporary base that I’ve set up. This place will be useless once the batch of goods is sent away, so please bear with the simple arrangement.”
Zheng Ziwen laughed and responded, “Head Shopkeeper, as long as the task is completed quickly, we’ll be able to return to the prefecture, so there’s no need to be too particular about other things.”
When Lin Yichen turned to look at Ou Yangming and Ni Yinghong, they nodded in agreement too. They had not come here for an enjoyable time, after all, hence as long as it was not a disgusting environment, they would not be bothered about the small issue.
Although the place was only a temporary base, Lin Yichen had put some thought into the decoration. It was obviously nothing close to a luxurious house, but was not at all inferior to Ou Yangming’s little courtyard.
Lin Yichen led them into the house after a short briefing, where he opened a door on the ground and revealed a basement.
Ou Yangming and the others could not help but look astonished once they entered the basement.
The basement actually stored at least a hundred different pieces of equipment. Apart from that, a pile of assorted ores was seen sitting in a corner.
Ou Yangming was puzzled after he took a glance at them because he could not understand why the seemingly worthless ores were placed together with the other pieces of equipment.
Of course, it was none of his business how someone else liked to store their items, thus he was not going to raise the question.
“Masters, the pieces of equipment are all here, and I’ll leave everything to you.” Lin Yichen bowed at them, then informed them after a pause, “There’s a calling bell here, so someone will attend to you once you pull it a few times. If you’re tired, you may also go upstairs to rest.”
After explaining everything, Lin Yichen nodded apologetically at the masters and left.
Appraisers must be extremely focused during appraisals. One’s efficiency would be affected if an outsider was present.
The basement was spacious, so even though plenty of equipment and ores were stored, due to the ample space it was not stuffy.
Ou Yangming knew very well that this place was certainly not built in a short period of time. If he actually believed that it was a temporary base, he would only be laughed at.
Nonetheless, he was not having wrongful thoughts, and was not interested in where this house was situated.
“Masters, let’s get to work. It won’t be easy to appraise every piece of equipment here,” Zheng Ziwen said with a deep voice. He was very familiar with equipment appraisal, thus was well aware of its difficulty, and had a headache after seeing the amount of equipment here.
Ou Yangming asked curiously, “Master Zheng, why does our town have so many pieces of equipment?”
Zheng Ziwen’s face changed a little, and he smiled awkwardly while replying to him, “Master Ou, I’m just following orders, I don’t know where they’re from.”
“Master Ou, we’re here to appraise them, so it’s best not to ask what we’re not supposed to know.” Ni Yinghong looked plainly at Ou Yangming instead. She hesitated for a while before she added, “This is a default rule among appraisers, and it’s also a way to protect ourselves.”
Ou Yangming was stunned. He pondered for a while and responded sincerely, “I understand, thank you, Master Ni.”
Appraisers were more likely to encounter unimaginable treasures as compared to ordinary people, and these treasures were usually associated with secrets. If an appraiser was too curious, it would only mean bad things because it could very well be the source of misfortune.
Zheng Ziwen sighed a breath of relief. He was really afraid that Ou Yangming, the rash young fellow, was going to get to the bottom of the matter. If that was really the case, even if it was to protect himself, he would not be willing to stay with Ou Yangming.
However, since Ou Yangming could understand an appraiser’s hardship, it would be the best.
After taking a look around the basement, Zheng Ziwen gestured with his hand while suggesting, “Let’s follow these boundaries and appraise the equipment in our own sections. We’ll attach our evaluations on the respective piece of equipment, then exchange sections and continue with the next round of appraisal. What do you think?”
Ni Yinghong and Ou Yangming naturally did not object to the suggestion. At the end of the day, Master Zheng Ziwen was the Yi Pavilion’s appraiser, whereas they were only there to help. It was a matter of course to obey the host’s arrangements.
Ou Yangming retrieved a writing brush, papers, and red strings, then proceeded to his section. Just as he was about to begin, Ni Yinghong called out to him, “Master Ou, if you happen to fancy any equipment here, you don’t need to leave an appraisal note.”
“What?” Ou Yangming was dumbfounded, so he asked in shock, “Why?”
Zheng Ziwen chuckled and explained, “Master Ou, according to the rule, if an appraiser is invited to appraise many items at once, the appraiser has the right to pick one of the treasures in the end. Hehe, but it’ll be up to one’s luck what kind of treasure is chosen.”
Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Head Shopkeeper Lin told me that, but won’t the host suffer a loss?”
“Master Ou, while it looks like the host will suffer a loss, we as appraisers have to take responsibility for the other items. If someone finds a mistake in the appraisal in the future, our reputation will be ruined,” Zheng Ziwen answered seriously, then continued after a pause, “Besides, even if there’s really something valuable, the host wouldn’t have shown it to us.”
Ou Yangming came to a sudden realization that the pieces of equipment and treasures here were the ones that could not be identified by the host. Furthermore, incidents like the discovery of top-grade items in a bunch of items had only happened in legends. Since they were in the real world, it was best for one to not have one’s head in the clouds.
After thanking the other masters for their pointers, Ou Yangming focused on the pieces of equipment.
Every piece would need to be appraised by three appraisers in rotation. When Ou Yangming stole glances at Ni Yinghong and Zheng Ziwen, he noticed that they were carefully inspecting a piece of equipment each. Even though they were not using the appraisal art, they were fully concentrated.
It was evident that they were judging based on their knowledge and experience. The only flaw with the method was that errors were inevitable, so each equipment had to be appraised by three appraisers before the final grade and rank were determined.
Ou Yangming casually picked up a longsword and scanned it for some time. Nevertheless, it was not the grade and rank that he was identifying, but the longsword’s pattern and features.
The only weapon that he had used so far in the military was the military saber, which was tough, but different from a longsword. Ou Yangming was observing the differences.
After some time, his ears twitched as he heard a slight noise.
When Ou Yangming turned to look, he noticed that Ni Yinghong had put down the piece of equipment in her hands. She scribbled a few words on a paper, then placed it into a small red packet before tying it to the equipment.
In order to avoid an appraiser’s judgment being affected by another appraiser, after an appraisal was done, the appraiser would put the result into a red packet instead of writing it straight on the piece of equipment. With that, an appraiser’s assessment would be solely based on one’s individual ability, and there would be no cases of an appraiser using someone else’s judgment as a reference.
Seeing as Ni Yinghong was done with the appraisal, a red light flashed in Ou Yangming’s palm.
His Military Fire appeared for a split second, but even in that short span of time, he had identified the equipment’s properties.
[Item: Outstanding longsword]
[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, High Grade Rank One]
[Attributes: Sharpness +11, Toughness +10, Durability 8]
Though Ou Yangming had inspected the longsword for some time, it was neither a divine weapon nor a sharp tool. It was merely a normal piece of White Slate Equipment.
Of course, the longsword was considered outstanding to have achieved High Grade, but its Durability dropped as it had been used for a long time.
Ou Yangming pondered, then picked up his brush to write on a paper.
‘High Grade Rank One longsword, slightly flawed, low durability.’
Afterward, Ou Yangming put the paper into a small packet. Unless all three appraisers were done appraising, the paper must not be taken out after it was inserted into the packet. Needless to say, it was just a rule, and nothing could actually be done if someone had secretly taken a look at the other papers.
That being said, at the very least, Ou Yangming and the two other appraisers would not do something that would cause them to lose their dignity.
Only when Ou Yangming was done putting the packet away, did Zheng Ziwen complete his appraisal and note down his remark.
Subsequently, Ou Yangming continued to observe the other pieces of equipment leisurely. The process was different for him because he did not need to find clues to deduce the equipment’s equivalent rank. By having the Military Fire, he could easily identify every equipment’s properties without a miss.
Compared to Ni Yinghong and Zheng Ziwen, his working speed was so fast that it could only be described as unbelievable.
Despite that, Ou Yangming was not so dumb as to fully display his ability. He planned it so that he was always a step behind Ni Yinghong, and also pretended that he was evaluating the pieces of equipment.
Although he was faster than Zheng Ziwen, he acted like he was inferior to Ni Yinghong.
Unquestionably, the biggest advantage of doing that was he would not draw their attention.
However, Ou Yangming had no idea that even though he was trying his best not to stand out, it was truly shocking that a new appraiser could maintain such speed.
Zheng Ziwen did not find it strange because he had witnessed Ou Yangming’s ability in the past, but Ni Yinghong reacted as if she had just discovered something huge. She glanced at Ou Yangming from time to time, and secretly sped up.
She was actually feeling quite worried, and wondered what she could do if Ou Yangming actually became faster than her.
Ou Yangming casually reached out for a waist sash among the other pieces of equipment.
It was his first time encountering this type of equipment, and he was immediately stunned when he used the Military Fire on it. A thought crossed Ou Yangming’s head as he lowered his head to look at the waist sash in his hands.
‘Did a pie actually fall from the sky, and it actually fell on my head?’